Sangiuliano is writing book about other people's gaffes.

Italy's right-wing culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano was at the centre of criticism on Wednesday over an erroneous Instagram post involving his home city of Naples.

The post featured a reference to the government's establishment of the Neapolis 2500 committee "to celebrate 2 and a half centuries of Naples", when it should have said 2,500 years.

The Instagram post was taken down within minutes but not before attracting the attention of social media users who scorned the minister for the mistake.

Sangiuliano's staff clarified that the minister "does not manage social media personally" and that "unfortunately a wrong draft" was published on Instagram, stressing that the message was correct on other social networks.

In a subsequent post on X, Sangiuliano blamed the mistake on his social media manger, saying: "That is why I accepted his resignation."

The minister of culture, soon to be author of the book "The Gaffes of Others," Gennaro Sangiuliano, makes another gaffe. Govt. starts a committee to celebrate 2,500 years of Naples, but in his Instagram post he writes "the two and a half centuries" (250 years) pic.twitter.com/P9EPDvetSW

— Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics (@CrazyItalianPol) August 7, 2024

Sangiuliano is no stranger to gaffes, of the live variety, including saying that "Columbus wanted to circumnavigate the earth on the basis of Galileo's theories" or "When people think about London, they think about Times Square".

Last year the minister raised eyebrows by implying that he had not read the books shortlisted for the Strega Prize, Italy's top literary award, despite having voted, as well as claiming that the mediaeval poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri was the founder of Italian right-wing thinking.

Sangiuliano recently hit back at criticism by announcing that he is writing a book titled "The Gaffes of Others", comprising mistakes made by opposition politicians and journalists.

The centre-left Partito Democratico deputy Piero De Luca on Wednesday stated: "Rather than writing the book of other people's gaffes, Sangiuliano should concentrate on publishing the encyclopedia of his own. It would be a great editorial success."